Four apples rest along the upper edge of the painting, their rounded forms overlapping and touching, each marked by patches of yellow, red, and green. Below them, five more apples are grouped together on a horizontal surface, the fruits varying in size and hue, with one apple at the lower left set apart from the cluster. The apples are painted with visible, textured brushstrokes, giving their skins a sense of weight and solidity while also revealing flashes of the underlying canvas at the edges.

A cool blue-grey cloth covers most of the surface beneath the fruit, broken by an irregular tan area at the lower left that exposes the bare canvas. The background is divided into two bands: a strip of ochre at the very top, and a broad, shadowed blue-grey plane that recedes behind the apples. Light falls softly from the left, casting gentle shadows and highlighting the rounded contours and dimpled tops of the apples.

The brushwork varies from broad, blocky patches of colour in the fruit to looser, more fluid strokes in the background and tablecloth. The composition is carefully balanced, with the apples arranged in two distinct rows, their forms echoing one another across the surface. The palette is dominated by yellows, reds, greens, and muted blues, creating a harmony between the fruit and its surroundings.

A small cluster of pale, vertical brushstrokes resembling straw or stems stands upright among the lower group of apples, slightly right of center. In the upper right corner, a patch of deep blue paint interrupts the otherwise muted background, applied in loose, angular strokes. The ochre band at the top is uneven and rough, with a jagged lower edge that creates a sense of separation from the blue-grey background below.

At the lower left corner, the exposed canvas is bordered by irregular, overlapping brushstrokes in green and brown, blending softly into the surrounding painted areas. The shadows beneath the apples are rendered with a mix of blue, grey, and green, and their diffuse edges suggest a gentle gradation of light across the surface. Apples is a still life by Paul Cézanne, painted in the late 1870s.